The Left - and the MSM they control - have tried to smear Bush from the get-go. Here's a partial listing (originally - on 7/17 - this list was merely a dirty dozen) of the idiotic phony scandals they've trumped up in an attempt to smear our president - even if it means aiding the enemy! This expanded list has been compiled from 7/17-19 with help from my readers. Here we go:

1 -"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" - The Left/MSM would like you to believe that Bush declared the war in Iraq over. He did not. Bush declared an end to major combat - which was true. In the same speech Bush said that the struggle continued, and it was going to be a difficult transition. QUOTE:

Thank you. Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. ... We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime who will be held to account for their crimes. ... We are helping to rebuild Iraq where the dictator built palaces for himself instead of hospitals and schools. And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by and for the Iraqi people. The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done and then we will leave and we will leave behind a free Iraq. The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001 and still goes on.

update: the leaker turned out to be an anti-Bushie working for Colin Powell at State: Richard Armitage, and he leaked the name to bolster the anti-Bush/anti-war Joe Plame, not to intimidate the Plame's or send a message to the intel' community to shut up.

3 -"MEMOGATE" - In a concerted effort to spring an "October Surprise", members of the the Left/MSM manufactured and used FAKE documents to try to prove that Bush did not serve honorably when he was part of the Texas Air National Guard. They did this RIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION. Texan Dan Rather lost his job; Bush got re-hired. Nuff said.

5 -"NIGER YELLOWCAKE AND THE SOTU" - Bush never said the words "Niger" or "Yellowcake" in the 2003 SOTU. (What he said was:“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” - and the Brits still stand behind this intel. Wilson LIED about how he got the assignment and what he reported about his mission. And he did this RIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION - and election in which he was an advisor and contributor to Kerry. The real scandal is that the MSM has allowed Wilson to LIE AND LIE AND LIE OVER AND OVER without one network or major newspaper once calling him out on it. COULD IT BE THAT THEY'RE BIASED!?MORE HERE.

7 -"ENRON/Kenny Boy Lay" - the crimes were actually committed on Clinton's watch and prosecuted on Bush's. Yet the Left/MSM blames Bush. This is generally true of ALL the corporate scandals of late (Arthur Andersen/Worldcomm/etc): the crimes were committed under the noses of Clinton & Rubin - who get none of the blame for them from the Left/MSM. Bush - who does get blamed - is actually punishing the crooks and fixing the problems by reforming the markets.

8 -"CHENEY'S SECRET ENERGY TASK FORCE" - The Left/MSM claimed that the Veep had no right to meet with anyone in private - especially not anyone in the energy industry. The Left claimed Cheney was a tool of the industry. The Left did what they love most: dragged it into the COURTS! The Left lost their legal battle, and Bush passed a sweeping Energy Bill - WITH BIPARTISAN SUPPORT.Yawn.9 -"'IRAQ IS A DIVERSION' BY DICK CLARKE" - Disgruntled bureaucrat, Dick Clarke claimed that Bush could have stopped 9/11 - and claimed that a "Presidential Daily Briefing" in August would prove this; however, the PDB contained NO ACTIONABLE INTEL. Clarke further claimed that Iraq was not involved in terror since 1993 - or cooperating with al Qaeda. BOTH WRONG! In fact, the Clinton Administration had proof of Saddam/al Qaeda operational cooperation, and we have discovered more proof at GITMO.BONUS BOGUS CLAIM:Clarke LIED when he testifed that stepped up counter-terror efforts were the reason the Millennium Attack failed.10 - "HUMVEE-GATE"- An intellectually dishonest reporter for the Left-wing dominated MSM planted a question/questioner during a miltary townhall meeting Rumsfeld held in Kuwait. At the time the army had not yet reto-fitted armor on to all their 15,000 Humvees; it does take time. FACT: the Humvee was NEVER intended as an ARMORED PERSONNEL CARRIER; the Humvee is merely the "new" Jeep. FACT: The enemy always attempts to attack at your weak-points. For a limited amount of time, the Humvees were a weak point. We fixed that, and the enemy moved on to other soft-targets. That's the way war is; it was not a scandal - except in the minds of the Left/MSM. NOW: Retro-fitted/armored Humvees are having other problems.

11 -"AL QAQQAGATE / NYTROGATE" - Just before the election, the LEFT/MSM AGAIN rushed out a phony story about a weapons depot supposedly looted after we took control of Iraq. The whole story was BS.

(14)"LANCETGATE" - that bogus statistical study which claimed to prove that the USA killed 100,000 civilians in the Iraq War. This study was thoroughly debunked. (Civilan casualties were probably between 4,000-8,000.) Read about it HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE - (these are links to link-filled Instapundit postings).

(15a)"KRUGMANGATE" - the Left (led by deranged NYTIMES columnist Paul Krugman) railed that the Bush tax cuts would drive the economy into a depression. WRONG. The USA economy leads the word and deficits are shrinking again. We could call this "HOOVERGATE"(15b) - because the Left kept charging over and over again that Bush was the first president since Hoover to lose jobs on his watch. Of course, by the time the election took place, that was no longer true: the nation was plus 1.5 million jobs, and the job growthhas continued and the economy is doing GREAT! Of course, you won't read that much about it in the MSM!

16 -"FUNERALGATE" - this (courtesy of John Cole of Balloon Juice) - is the phony scandal that Bush was somehow being a bad leader (and/or disingeuous) because he wasn't attending any funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. For a COMPLETE run-down of FUNERALGATE click HERE, and read John's comprehensive review.

17 -"PATRIOT-ACT-GATE" - remember how the Lefties cried and cried and cried about how it was, in effect, a repeal of the Bill of Rights!? They were completely overboard and outta control on that. Today, they cannot name ONE citizen who's had their Rights denied. Yet despite that, they - the ACLU especially - have intervened again and again on behalf of the sworn enemies of America and liberty - making it more difficult for us to prosecute the enemy and to gather intel' on them. And now, the Left is trying to weaken it as it goes through re-enactment. (Hat tip to commentor ARMINIUS - for this and #18!)

18 -"LOOTED BAGHDAD MUSEUM-GATE" - remember how the Left, and the MSM they dominate, railed and railed about how Rumsfeld and the US miltiary had idiotically left the Baghdad Art Musem unprotected and thus has allowed masssive looting of its ancient art treasures (they called it "cultural vandalism" and they meant that WE were the vandals, and NOT the enemy!), REMEMBER!? Well: THAT WAS PHONY TOO! Most of the treasures were hidden - or stolen by insiders.

Let me just say something about leaks in Washington. There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. There's leaks at the executive branch; there's leaks in the legislative branch. There's just too many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.

This statement, due to the miracle of spin and the President's habit of using imprecise language while speaking extemporaneously, has transmogrified into 'I will fire anyone in my administration who talked about Valerie Plame.'(John Cole)

Of course, that is truly NOT what he said, and NOT what he meant. This FACT hasn't stopped the Left - (folks like John Podesta and the fat senior Senator from Massachusetts, Teddy Jo Kopechne) - and the MSM they still dominate, from LYING and distorting it to suit their narrow partisan ends. Anyone who has the slightest regard for the truth knows that the claim that Bush is moving the goal-posts to protect his cronies is completely BOGUS.

21 - "FLU-SHOT-GATE" - In 2004 (and just before the election), because of a production problem, a major plant couldn't deliver the the flu vaccine to the DHHS. The Left blamed Bush. Kerry/Edwards even ran ads about it! Well, there was no wave of flu-related deaths, were there!? In fact, flu-season came and went RATHER MILDLY! I guess the Left and the MSM just made a mountain out of a mole-hill - or should we say that they TRIED to make a scandal out of THIN AIR, and FAILED! I wonder why!? Could it be .... LEFT-WING BIAS?! Naw, ya tink!? More HERE.

24 - "FBI-ACLU-GATE" - Per Kerr/Volokh (hat tip NRO/ADLER/Corner): Eric Lichtblau's New York Times story about the FBI's keeping records on the ACLU is based on a serious misrepresentation. ... the New York Times reported today that the FBI had 1,173 pages of records "on" the ACLU, which makes it sound like the FBI is keeping a large dossier on the ACLU. ... It turns out that the language of the ACLU request was tremendously broad. The ACLU didn't request just documents about the ACLU, or documents about monitoring the ACLU. Rather, it made an extremely broad request that asked the FBI to collect any documents in its possession that even just referred to the ACLU. ... my suspicion is that the New York Times reported the number of FBI pages that mention the ACLU as if it were the number of FBI pages that were about the ACLU and its activities. It seems to me that the difference is considerable."

YOU BET THE DIFFERENCE IS CONSIDERABLE; it's the difference between a pseudo-scandal and the truth. In other words: the Left tries to strike again, but again they only STRIKE OUT! Here's how the ACLU press release presents DOJ's court filing in response to its FOIA request (again, from Kerr/Volokh): Government Has Amassed Thousands of Pages on National Peace and Civil Rights Organizations NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union today revealed that the FBI has amassed more than 1,100 pages of documents on its organization since 2001, as well as documents concerning other non-violent groups including Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice.

This is nothing more than RANK DISTORTION and a SMEAR against the FBI. The NYTIMES and the WASHPOST and the rest of the MSM relayed the Left-wing SMEAR as if it was Gospel. The Left and the MSM they dominate have no shame, no morals, and no chance at winning with tactics like this! Thank God!

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We should also always remember one of the most annoying and non-productive characteristics of the folks that make these Left-wing smears: even after they've been disproved, the Left-wing talking heads still repeat them over and over and over again. I think their employing the BIG LIE THEORY in practice; they think if the say it often enough people will believe that they're true. And the sad fact is, that because so many people limit their news intake to the MSM or the NYTimes, they have NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE MISSING: the truth!

And, the MSM cannot get away with using the excuse that they're just INCOMPETENT. After all, nearly ALL the mistakes always benefit either the Left or our enemies in the GWOT. That's NOT incompetence; that's bias verging on treason.

IF I WERE INCLINED TO HELP THE LEFT/MSM, I'D RECOMMEND THAT INSTEAD OF TRYING TO SMEAR BUSH WITH PHONY SCANDALS, THAT THE LEFT PROPOSE SOME COUNTER-POLICIES FOR THE GWOT AND THE ECONOMY AND ON OTHER DOMESTIC ISSUES. Not that it would work: The Left's policies are as bad as their phony scandals! Heh.

And I'd recommend to the MSM that they cover the news; there's a lot happening out there, and it's pathetic that they miss most of it! They miss the REAL news because they're too busy trumping up phony news to hurt Bush. NEED MORE PROOF?! Well, here's the CLINCHER: I defy ANYONE to send me a link to ONE SINGLE SOLITARY NEWSTORY which the MSM skewed in a way that was FAVORABLE to Bush! (And don't give me that old WMD canard: everyone's intel' had it the same as the CIA, and even Bill Clinton belirved it; in fact, it would have been treason for any American president NOT to.)

[ANNOUNCEMENT: If you folks out there have more Bogus Bush Scandals (or better links to the ones I've mentioned), let me know in the comments section; (please provide a link to new bogus scandals, if you can). I'll post the best of the additional BOGUS BUSH SCANDALS right here on the front page!] (UPDATE 7/19 - NOTE: this post has been edited and its original layout changed slightly for greater clarity.)

42 comments:

PapayaSF
said...

Good list, and I know you're not claiming it's complete, but I'd like to mention the supposedly "plastic" turkey Bush was photographed holding in Iraq. Turned out it was a real turkey, the centerpiece.

Gee, the blowing of Valerie Plame's cover was SO inconsequential that a federal prosecutor has spent over a year investigating it.

Oh, and the economy is doing so great the US comptroller general warned that "serious structural problems in the economy remain." And despite all the ballyhooed job growth (which never approached the 300,000 a month promised way back when) the unemployment rate is STILL higher than when Bush took office (5.0 as compard to 4.2 percent)

The biggest whopper is how you can claim the MSM are biased, when they're the best friends you've got

Don't forget the "Ashcroft covering the Justice statue boobies" scandal, and the "looted Baghdad museum" scandal, and pretty much every word ever written on the meaning and effects of the Patriot act....

(3) and when you count non-payroll jobs (folks who work on 1099's and the self-employed) than a HIGHER OVERALL % of people are working now than at any time in history.

and.... "at any time ion history" includes during BJ Clinton's two ineffectual terms - in which BUBBA'S BUBBLEs grew, in which several al Qaeda attacks against the USA went inadequately responded too - thus emboldening them - (according to UBL, himself).

JOHN COLE/ballon juice: honored you stopped by; i think you are a GREAT blogger (even tho' we don;t alwys agree). i will DEFINITELY include funeralgate (after I read your post, i will link to it on the frontpage).

Don't forget about the "quagmire" during the invasion. And how taking Baghdad would be a near-impossible task. And how much Bush's flight suit drove them crazy. And what about that drug scandal from Kitty Kelley's "book."

For a lot more indepth on Lancetgate, please check out my blog that has debunked and deconstructed this myth, which also ties in the new information coming from the Iraqi government and the UNDP about casualties.

The definitive refutation of "Plame name leak-gate" is at http://www.nationalreview.com/mccarthy/mccarthy200507180801.asp .

The media's amici curaea document itself proves the MSM speaks with forked tongue. In it, they harp on why there was no crime [to protect their reporters, of course], and that Plame was "outed" long ago - by the CIA.

You mentioned the Hummer armor, but what about body armor. Remeber how the MSM claimed US troops were lacking in that department too? It turned out that some troops had only the SECOND best armor in the world, while others had the BEST armor in the world. Every man jack among em was armored.

Conservative women are always more appealing than liberal women. Liberal women can be picked up on any street corner.

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From time to time the tree of liberty must be fed with the blood of patriots, tyrants, and girly men. -- Thomas Jefferson__________________________________________________________

They say that being dominated by a woman is one of a terrorist's worst fears. I say if it's good enough for John Kerry, it's good enough for a terrorist!

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I saw the pictures of the male Iraqi prisoners naked and stacked in a human pyramid. I suppose that is called abuse in Baghdad but in San Francisco that's called a successful party!____________________________________________________________

I saw on the news that Ted Kennedy was upset because he was inadvertently put on the Homeland Security "No Fly" list. Homeland Security corrected the error by putting him on the "No Drive" list.

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Having John McCain in the Republican party is like having a bisexual roommate. You never know who he's going to be in bed with.

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I'm tired of hearing about the terrorist prisoners in Iraq humiliated by being made to wear women's underwear. Hell, most of the democrats in congress wear women's underwear and they're not humiliated!

There are plenty of people out there who STILL BELIEVE that some of these scandals - some of these charges are accurate and true. But that's only because they are Lefties who limit themselves to reading/watching the left-wing dominated MSM.

The best way to un-brainwash these Lefties is to get them to read and watch other things.

Challenge them to read the WSJ and watch Fox just for just ONE month.

Challenge them. Ask them if they think they are "committed" enough to "withstand" watching/reading the "enemy" press.

I guarantee: it will open their eyes. For many of them have NO IDEA how distorted a view of things they get from ther MSM.

Have them watch Brit and read the WSJ. For just a month. It'll work the truth always does.

WILLisms.com had you on his list for classiest! I agree!... The Astute Blogger and the bogus Bush scandals are the work of a genius! ... This post shines the light on just how far the radical left will go in order to take the GOP down!... Thank very much!

Remarkable blog here! I really enjoyed the topic you chose to write about. I'm definitely going to bookmark you! I have a Money site. It pretty much covers Money related stuff. Come and check it out if you get time :-)

The last time the country was in this great a shape (invloved in conflict that would never end, Increasing deficits, civil, and cultural divide, american pitted against american, protests, Presidential criminal scandal (But that was probably fake, just like the holocost); reduction of middle class-- was hmmm late 1960s and early 1970. We know how that ended - May 04, 1970- but that was probably a figment of the left. Republican Rule next successful period was 1980s where we had third world inflation, and with Sufficating deficits. What is an out of work mid-management employee - answer an ex-republican.That is where the number changes are coming from. White mid-level management. Where Dubya says Do I got a big plate of re-training for U!

Great List! You might add to the "Mission Accomplished" scandal that Gen. Tommy Franks specifically requested that Bush make a big deal about the end of combat operations because they hoped that some of the countries opposed to the invasion would be more willing to lend help. Turns out that was a pipe-dream.

So the attempt was made to "build a coalition" but you can't do that with someone who doesn't want one.